Briefly in English

Reliable energy service. For you.

​In addition to the parent company, the Savon Voima Group includes Savon Voima Verkko Oy, which provides network services, and Savon Voima Salkunhallinta Oy specialised in providing investment services in the energy sector. The Group’s business areas are electricity distribution, electricity sales, provision of portfolio management services, electricity generation and district heating. Electricity distribution is carried out in compliance with the Electricity Market Act, which means that electricity sales and distribution have been legally unbundled so that the subsidiary Savon Voima Verkko Oy is in charge of the distribution business. Portfolio management services are provided by the subsidiary Savon Voima Salkunhallinta Oy, the only energy company in Finland for which Finanssivalvonta has granted a licence conforming to the Investment Services Directive.​

The Savon Voima Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of Savon Energiaholding Oy, which is owned by 21 municipalities. With its net sales of approx. EUR 185,8 million (2015), the company is one of the largest sellers of energy services in Finland. The Group employs about 182 professionals in the field, in addition to which we employ about 300 persons through our partners in co-operation.

The roots of Savon Voima are in Northern and Central Savo, where the company’s electricity and district heating networks, substations, power plants and heating plants provide energy services to 116,900 places of electricity use and to 2,995 district heat connections. With its annual investments of approx. EUR 54 million, the Group is the most significant investor and maintainer of energy infrastructure in the area.

In 2015, the volume of electricity sales was 1,510 gigawatt hours, and Savon Voima has in fact been a party to the largest electricity transactions concluded in both the business and private sector in Finland in recent years. Savon Voima is an active and reliable contracting party and broker-dealer also in financial transactions related to energy and environmental commodities.

Savon Voima has power plants and shares in hydropower and wind power production, as well as in bio, natural gas, coal and nuclear power production. Savon Voima’s nine hydropower plants are located in Northern Savo, and the company’s combined heat and power plants are located in Iisalmi and Pieksämäki. Savon Voima’s associated company, Kymppivoima Oy, has holdings in Pohjolan Voima Oy and Etelä-Pohjanmaan Voima Oy, through which Savon Voima has production capacity throughout Finland. Through Kymppivoima Oy, Savon Voima also has production shares in the Ajos wind farm of PVO Innopower Oy in Kemi. We have been making investments in the utilisation of domestic fuels in a determined manner for many years, which has increased the share of locally sourced fuels I heat production to over 90 per cent.

Savon Voima is a competent partner for consumers, businesses and communities, providing them with a wide range of energy services.

Financial statement release 1 March 2016

In 2015, the Group’s net sales amounted to EUR 185.8 million (EUR 188.0 million in 2014), a decline of 1.1 per cent.

The company’s 2015 result weakened from that of the previous year. The Group’s operating profit declined 69.1 per cent and stood at EUR 8.1 million (26.3). The drop in the result can be attributed to the low price level of energy commodities and the extra EUR 12 million in costs absorbed by electricity network operations as a result of natural conditions. In addition, the termination of the operations of the coal condensing power plants owned through Kymppivoima Oy caused additional costs for the company.

The Group’s investment programme was expanded during the financial year, which contributed to the increase in the amount of depreciation. Behind the investments is the criteria related to the reliability of electricity distribution per the 2013 Electricity Market Act, which aim to improve the electricity network’s ability to withstand weather, as well as our strategic goals of increasing the use of biofuels in district heat production and improving production efficiency.

The Group’s gross investments in fixed assets amounted to EUR 53.6 million. EUR 36.6 million was invested in electricity network construction. A further EUR 14.7 million was invested in the district heating network and the production of heat. Investments in electricity production came to EUR 1.5 million. Connection fees increased by EUR 1.5 million on the previous year.

The company’s Board of Directors proposes that a dividend of EUR 6.50 per share, representing a total dividend payout of EUR 3,747,471.00, be paid for 2015; the total dividend payout for 2014 was EUR 7,494,942.00.

A challenging year for Savon Voima

Challenges caused by natural conditions led to the ‘weatherproof electricity network’ investment programme

Savon Voima Oyj is a wholly owned subsidiary of Savon Energiaholding Oy, which is owned by 21 municipalities. As of 31 December 2015, Savon Voima Group comprised the parent company Savon Voima Oyj and the subsidiaries Savon Voima Verkko Oy and Savon Voima Salkunhallinta Oy. Kymppivoima Oy and Kymppivoima Hankinta Oy are associated companies.

Following a business transaction, Joroisten Energialaitos was transferred to Savon Voima Group at the start of 2015, and its operations were integrated into the Group’s operations during the year.

Energy demand remained unchanged, prices fell

According to the Finnish Energy association’s statistics, electricity consumption in Finland in 2015 totalled 82.5 terawatt hours (TWh), a decline of 1.1 per cent from the previous year. According to temperature-adjusted electricity consumption, the decline was 0.5 per cent. Industry’s need for electricity was down 0.9 per cent, and other consumption declined 1.0 per cent compared to the previous year.

Of Finland’s electricity consumption, roughly 27 per cent was provided by nuclear power, 25 per cent by combined heat and power, 20 per cent by hydropower, five per cent by condensing power and 20 per cent by imported electricity. Wind power accounted for some three per cent of Finland electricity consumption.

The bulk price of electricity on the Nordic markets was 2.1 c/kWh on average. The average market price of electricity in Finland was 3.0 c/kWh, some 18 per cent lower than in 2014. Finland’s area price on the Nord Pool Spot electricity exchange was higher than the system price. Finland’s area price in 2015 was on average 0.9 c/kWh higher than the system price. This was due to the limited transmission capacity in western Finland and to fluctuations in imports from Russia.

The price of electricity derivatives declined throughout the year, especially in the second half of the year. The price of fuels correspondingly decreased, with the decline also accelerating in the second half of the year. The price of emissions rights increased. The price of both electricity and fuels was pushed down by the abundant supply and the weak development of demand. Electricity production capacity based on renewable sources of energy continued to grow. Wind power capacity in the Nord Pool area grew eight per cent to more than 13 GW.

In Kuopio, the heating degree day value describing the demand for energy needed to heat a building was 3.881, which was lower than the 2014 value and more than 23 per cent lower than the long-term average. A total of 33.0 TWh of district heat was generated in Finland in 2015, which is 5.4 per cent more than in 2014. Seventy-four per cent of the need for district heating was generated by combined heat and power.

Savon Voima Verkko Oy

Savon Voima Verkko Oy transmitted 1,668 GWh of electricity in the company’s network area, which is 1.6 per cent higher than in the previous year.

Operating costs were 58.5 per cent higher than in the previous year, and amounted to EUR 28.4 million. The increase in operating costs was due to more serious disturbance situations than in 2014, such as the January snow loads and the disruptions to electricity distribution caused by the storm Valio. Repair costs amounted to roughly EUR 6 million, and standard compensation paid to customers for extended electricity outages amounted to another EUR 6 million.

In 2015, investments came to EUR 36.6 million, i.e. 3.5 per cent more than in the previous year. The bulk of the investments was directed at building a weatherproof electricity network in accordance with the Electricity Market Act. More than 120 individual projects were realised as part of the investment programme.

The number of new electrical connections remained at a very low level, at 384, as in the previous year.

Savon Voima Myynti

Savon Voima Myynti handles the procurement and retail sale of electricity in the Group.

Electricity retail sales operations in 2015 were positive. The downward trend of electricity bulk prices made it possible to lower the prices paid by customers. Due to the lower sales prices compared to 2014 and the roughly ten per cent lower volume of electricity sold, net sales declined to EUR 82.7 million (84.6).

Savon Voima Lämpö

Savon Voima Lämpö is responsible for the Group’s district heating operations.

In district heating, network-based pricing was adopted as of 1 January 2015.

Sales of thermal energy declined by three per cent compared to 2014 and totalled 584 GWh. Fuel consumption amounted to 872 GWh, of which domestic fuels and procured heat accounted for 95 per cent. The remaining five per cent was oil and LPG.

The total number of customers at year-end was 2,995. The district heating network increased by 2,614 metres; 1,228 metres of old pipelines were repaired, and 1,740 metres were dismantled. The combined total length of the networks at the end of 2015 was 361.7 kilometres.

Savon Voima Tuotanto

The electricity generation of the Savon Voima Tuotanto production business unit came to 458 GWh, which is seven per cent less than a year earlier.

The wind power generated came to 20 GWh, i.e. 33 per cent more than in the previous year. Wind power generation at Innopower’s wind farm in Ajos, Kemi, remained on a par with the previous year, at 15 GWh. The additional volume of wind power production is attributed to the start-up of EPV Tuulivoima Oy’s Vähäkyrö wind power park. The share of nuclear power in electricity production grew 19 per cent from the level of the previous year and was 78 GWh. The rise in production volumes resulted from the purchase in 2014 of additional nuclear power shares in the Olkiluoto 1 and 2 reactors through Kymppivoima Oy.

Savon Voima’s hydropower generation amounted to 122 GWh, i.e. 38 per cent more than in 2014. The growth in hydropower volumes was due to high rains and to the transfer of the Liuna and Maavesi hydropower plants to Savon Voima’s ownership at the end of 2014, following a business transaction with Joroisten Energialaitos.

In 2015, work to develop the environmental system continued, and personnel’s environmental awareness was increased through, among other things, environmental safety card training (YmpäristöturvallisuuskorttiTM). Environmental risk observations are actively reported and are part of day-to-day operations. Negative environmental impacts and their risks were reduced in accordance with the environmental action programme that was drawn up.

The Group’s objective is to reduce the use of imported oil in district heat production by building new plants and modernising current plants to enable them to utilise domestic fuels. In 2015, a new bio-heating plant was built in Pielavesi, a solar- and pellet-powered heating plant was built in Tahkovuori, Nipanen, a flue-gas scrubber was built for the Iisalmi powerplant, and at the Kivirannankuja reserve and peak power plant in Iisalmi, the combustion of pyrolysis bio-oil was tested. Furthermore, during the year a decision was made on the construction in 2016 of a flue-gas scrubber for Pieksämäki. In 2015, fossil oils accounted for only five per cent of our total fuel consumption. Most (47.5%) of our combustion fuel was wood.

Personnel

Personnel during the year came to an average of 182 (175) people, and at year-end to 188, of whom 179 were permanent.

Summary of business areas

The unconsolidated net sales and operating profit of the businesses and subsidiaries developed as follows:

NET SALES (€ million)

2015

2014

2013

Savon Voima Myynti

82.7

84.6

92.8

Savon Voima Lämpö

41.9

42.1

40.6

Savon Voima Tuotanto

15.8

19.7

25.9

Savon Voima Verkko Oy

67.1

65.5

65.9

Savon Voima Salkunhallinta Oy

0.8

1.1

1.2

OPERATING PROFIT (€ million)

2015

2014

2013

Savon Voima Myynti

4.4

1.8

3.2

Savon Voima Lämpö

3.9

4.9

2.7

Savon Voima Tuotanto

-9.4

-2.2

-2.5

Savon Voima Verkko Oy

8.4

21.4

21.8

Savon Voima Salkunhallinta Oy

0.1

0.5

0.5

Investments

The Group’s gross investments in fixed assets amounted to EUR 53.6 million. EUR 36.6 million was invested in electricity network construction. A further EUR 14.7 million was invested in the district heating network and the production of heat. Investments in electricity production came to EUR 1.5 million. Connection fees increased by EUR 1.5 million on the previous year.